


Happily Never After.

by sabrina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-23
Updated: 2010-09-23
Packaged: 2017-10-22 03:09:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/233091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabrina/pseuds/sabrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The calm before the storm; Summer 1961.</p><br/><table><tbody><tr><td></td>
</tr></tbody></table>
            </blockquote>





	Happily Never After.

  
  


The smell of meat and onions lingered in the small kitchen and Eileen ran a cloth over the wooden countertop. In the room through the archway, the BBC reported on a sports game that she could not begin to comprehend. Fortunately it seemed that as a woman she was not expected to comprehend it. It was a bit odd, Tobias said, that she’d never been to a football game, but he’d take her one day. That the ‘one day’ hadn’t come wasn’t something that particularly concerned Eileen. She’d never cared about Quidditch that much either.

Right now what she cared about was the sense of perfect harmony that seemed to have fallen over the house in the after dinner sleepiness. Tobias was sitting in the well-worn arm chair while in one arm Severus slept curled against his father’s chest. As much as Tobias might want him to enjoy the commentary on the wireless, Severus didn’t seem much inclined to do so. Eileen folded the cloth in two, stepped away from the counter and stood in the archway. Severus needed to be put to bed, she thought, smiling as she looked at the two, but moving him might wake him, and Tobias looked so handsome there with his dark haired son laying in his arm, that she couldn’t find it in her heart to request the boy to put him to sleep for the night.

The night before had not been so simple. There were rumours of closing the mill and Tobias’ mood had been simply dreadful despite his claims that it was unimportant. It wouldn’t affect them, he’d said, breaking off a bit of the cheese and putting it on the bread. They’d still need the mill in the end, but it was unfortunate the conversation was even coming up – unfortunate so many other places in town were shutting down. It would be bad for the economy and what did the Bloody Minister think was going on that he was even considering the current policy proposals?

And it was usually there that Eileen lost him. It was an endless frustration that no matter how little she might have been trained to pay attention to man’s politics, she’d understood them in the Wizarding World. Here in the Muggle world it wasn’t just a matter of pretending she didn’t understand, she quite honestly did _not_ understand and she never quite knew how to react to it. Smiling, nodding, and agreeing with Tobias seemed the best of the available options and generally it seemed to be precisely what Tobias needed, and things levelled out into something that was as she thought it ought to be again. Not precisely her storybook perfection – but certainly a mood where she did not have to be afraid of what she might say lest it upset her husband.

The kitchen was clean now, chores seemed to take so much longer without magic, but Eileen couldn’t quite bring herself to tell Tobias the truth, even if it might make her life a bit easier if he knew. It wasn’t technically breaking the statute of secrecy (she didn’t think) but it was close enough to it to make her stop and hesitate. Unfortunately in Tobias’ arms at this moment lay a reason she would need to do so soon enough. It was unlikely that Severus had no magical ability after all and eventually that would start to show. Well, she would deal with that when it came, and when it did this worry would have likely been much ado about nothing at all.

“I should put him upstairs,” she said, walking up behind Tobias – but during an advertisement. She knew well enough to not disrupt the commentator.

“Yeah,” Tobias looked down at the sleepy bundle and lifted him carefully up to her. “Think he’s a bit young yet to really understand the ins and outs of Manchester football.”

Severus was tucked safely in her arms and she’d turned away when she heard Tobias say, “Eileen?”

The turnaround showed him grinning slightly, one cheek lifted up and for a moment she was certain that even if it wasn’t this way every day, this particular moment was precisely what marriage should be. She risked waking Severus to step across and plant a kiss on her husband’s cheek before climbing the stairs up to the tiny bedroom above.

Through the back window the light from the full moon shone in and she could easily make her way across to the rocker where she sat down tucking Severus in next to her. He was soft and warm, and at the sound of the wireless downstairs she began rocking. Tobias would be there until the end of the game which meant she had plenty of time to sing a lullaby.

  
  
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End file.
